Mystery Hunt 1994 / Puzzle 31 Solution

The puzzle is a regular cryptogram, and can be decoded using regular techniques.

The pictures are of places around the MIT campus, except that in each photo, a letter has been doctored out of the photograph. Each of the removed letters has also been removed from the corresponding numbered space of the cryptogram... so you can figure out what's missing from the photo and put it back into the cryptogram before decrypting.

The missing letters are as follows:

  1. A as a missing steel girders of the Biology building
  2. A as part of the dollar bill at cashier's office
  3. T on the floor of Walker Memorial Hall
  4. B on Bexley House
  5. G on Bexley House
  6. E on a sign in building 20
  7. B in the Club Chem sign in building 6 (which has since been altered)
  8. I on a course 8 sign
  9. J as the J-particle sign on cyclotron building
  10. D on the sign in front of DKE
  11. X as ceiling fan blades
  12. E from E-102, apparently
  13. R on the High Voltage Research Lab
  14. L (lambda actually) from somewhere in course-6 land
  15. Q on the sign in the stacks of Hayden library
  16. G on the war memorial in Lobby 10
  17. F on a calendar
  18. O as a ring to lock your bike to the bike rack
  19. O from a Russian name on a large mural somewhere near building 33
  20. E from Strobe lab, somewhere
  21. T in the TCA sign
  22. M in the W1MX MIT Ham Radio Society sign
  23. A in the name of building W2A
  24. R in the WMBR Studios radio station sign

The decrypted cryptogram reads "If two steps of the path begin with the same word they must be interchanged before you start". Note that there was no solution pair for this puzzle.